Speech #1040203898

Mr. President. under my amendment. up to 150 of the 350 Department of Labor wage and hour investigators authorized in the bill will be assigned the task of ensuring that employers seeking immigrant help do so according to our laws. This amendment simply takes the same enforcement authority that is available to the Labor Department in the temporary worker program and makes it available to the permanent worker program. It does not create anything new. Enforcement activities covered under my amendment include the investigations of cases where there is a reasonable cause to believe the employer has made a misrepresentation of a material fact on a labor certification application. These enforcement activities are vital to reduce the number of immigrant and nonimmigrant victims of illegal immigration practices. There is no better example of the need for better DOL enforcement than in the recruitment area. For example. employers currently are required to recruit U.S. workers first. bringing in permanent immigrants. but the recruitment process result Is the hire of a U.S. worker only 0.2 of the time. A recently released report of the Department of Labors inspector general shows recruitment in the permanent employment program is a sham. Another example. the IG reports that during one 6month period. 28.000 U.S. applicants were referred on 10.000 Job orders and only 5 were hired.